Remember the old grade school jump-rope chant, "First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes...
sharing a clothes closet!!" Okay, so I modified the chant a bit! (And I'm dating myself since that chant is from my 1960s childhood, but I digress!) :)
Because it seems like so many couples have difficulty sharing a clothes closet without angst, especially when a "Melanie Messy" and a "Ned Neatfreak" marry, (or a "Mike Messy and a "Nancy Neatfreak" since chaos knows no gender!), I thought I'd explain how my hubby Steve and I organized our new closet that we share in our new
710 SF petite penthouse as it's working out just dandy! (Okay, I admit we are both organizing zealots, but even if you're not...you can still use
some of our tips!)
The photo above shows our empty "before" closet.
And here's our finished "organized after."
Our first tip for you is to each take a side of the closet as your "claimed" his and hers space. Don't try and intermingle things! Each person should have their own side/space.
The other must-have suggestion we have is to invest in quality hangers. I like hard clear plastic shirt hangers
like this because of the swivel, and because I can hang my lace tank tops in the slots so they won't fall of the hanger. For pants I prefer
white tubular plastic hangers so the pants don't slide off the end like they do with open-ended pant hangers.
We went
up up up with wire shelving from
Home Depot that my hubby installed, and we have a few clear bins up there for things like my scrapbook supplies, travel items, and our important evacuation papers.
We also stacked
plastic drawers from
Target for my hubby's undies, casual t-shirts, socks, silk pj pants, and workout clothes. Those are his drawers; I don't use
any of them!
The stacking plastic bins with the white lids on the upper shelves are for my undies, lace tank tops, shorts/summer vacation clothes, workout clothes, extra purses, and shoes. I like clear bins so you can see items through them. We bought them at
Wal-Mart. Some of the bins I also labeled with my
Brother label maker for additional ease of identifying what's in there at a glance.
The other thing we invested in this time was
men's stackable large clear shoe containers from Container Store for my hubby's man-sized shoes. They even have ventilation holes, no less. Love these!
My hubby chose this
tie and belt hanger from Container Store. It works great in a small closet. It makes me smile when I see his Santa tie, his Monet tie, and ties I've given him as gifts over the years.
I also love
various hooks mounted in closets. Here I have one for my walking cape and hat and for my silk robes tht I buy for great prices at
WinterSilks. I also have an
over-the-door hanger I can use to hang up a damp piece of laundry to finish drying.
Hooks also hold my glasses, sunglasses, hot packs, and purse. The
clear pocket caddy hanging on the wall is usually mounted on the back of a door but we removed the hooks and screwed the pockets into the wall to hold my scarves, shawls, slippers, and the lint brushes. This works so great because you can see the scarf colors and patterns at a glance when getting dressed.
We do
not share laundry hampers. Steve uses the black one, I use the white one, and the purple basket is for wet towels. Actually, the hampers are tall trash cans with flip-up lids
from Target. He does his clothing laundry and I do mine. Plus I wash, dry, and fold all the towels and sheets as well. If either of us has a super busy week we pinch hit on laundry for the other one, but we agree that it works best for us to do our own clothes laundry.
Last but not least, we also recommend sticking to
just clothing in the bedroom closet whenever possible, except for the few items like we put way high up that we don't use too often. The reason for this is you won't be bumping into each other trying to get at misc. things while also trying to get dressed to go out on a hot date!
There you have it! My internationally bestselling book*,
Small Space Organizing: A Room-by-Room Guide to Maximizing Your Space, gives you oodles more tips and resources on how to organize your bedroom closet and every room in your home!
Happy Closet Organizing, Savvy Spouses!
Kathryn :)
*Amazon bestseller rankings change hourly.